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The cast of Sanford and Son may have passed away, but their legacy lives on with fantastic performances. Redd Foxx's portrayal of Fred Sanford is iconic, showcasing a wise yet brusque older gentleman with a big heart. The ensemble cast, including Lawanda Page and Don Bexley, brought depth and authenticity to the beloved show.

"Who passed away on Sanford and Son?" is what some nostalgic viewers may be wondering about the NBC sitcom from the '70s. Sanford and Son premiered in 1972 and ran for six seasons, ending in 1979, making the TV show 50 years old in 2022. It's based on the British series from a few years earlier, Steptoe and Son, but follows a Black father and son duo. The cantankerous and suspicious father, Fred Sanford, and his eponymous son, Lamont, run an antique/junk store from their home in Los Angeles while frequently dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes.

While not...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Kino Lorber has released a Blu-ray edition of the 1965 comedy Strange Bedfellows, which existed primarily to reunite Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida, who had a box-office hit with Come September several years before. Like most of the romantic comedies of the era, there is little to separate this from a standard sitcom episode aside from the running time. Hudson plays a London-based executive on the rise who spontaneously marries a tempestuous Italian bombshell artist played by Lollobrigida. The newlyweds find their mutually insatiable sex drives are the only thing they have in common. Politically conservative Hudson is constantly at odds with his wife's liberal activism. They soon separate but after seven years, Hudson has a reason to stall the divorce proceedings he has put in place. Seems his even more conservative boss wants to promote him to be his right hand man- on the proviso that he is happily married.

Commercial Hollywood comedies about the glory and absurdity of modern family life tend to come in two flavors: earnest and wack job. If Will Ferrell had starred in “Instant Family,” a comedy about an attractive, childless, edging-into-middle-age couple who take in a brood of foster kids who prove to be more trouble than they look, the movie would have been an over-the-top synthetic farce crammed with masochistic dad jokes; even the hugs would have been yocks. But “Instant Family,” starring Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne as a happily married but vaguely saddened white-bread couple (they barely have a clue as to how much they need children!), who take a trio of Hispanic-American siblings under their untested wings, isn’t a zany obnoxious head conk of a movie.

It was directed, as well as co-written, by Sean Anders, who made “Daddy’s Home” and “Daddy’s Home 2” (which were that sort...

What? Doctors aren’t perfect? And some practicing doctors are incompetent? Stanley Kramer’s All-Star medical soap opera takes two unlikely students (Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra) through med school and confronts them with a number of pat dramatic complications. But the movie belongs to top-billed Olivia de Havilland, who lends a touch of class to the entire iffy enterprise.

Not as a Stranger

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1955 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 135 min. / Street Date January 9, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford, Myron McCormick, Lon Chaney Jr., Jesse White, Harry Morgan, Lee Marvin, Virginia Christine, Whit Bissell, Jack Raine, Mae Clarke, John Dierkes, King Donovan, Franklyn Farnum, Paul Guilfoile, Nancy Kulp, Harry Lauter, Juanita Moore, Jerry Paris, Stafford Repp, Carl Switzer, Will Wright.

Cinematography: Franz Planer

Film Editor: Fred Knutson

Original Music: George Antheil

Written by Edna and Edward Anhalt,...

José Ferrar stars in his second dramatic feature as director, teamed with newcomer Gena Rowlands as a married working couple. Ferrar's executive assistant isn't on the list of those invited to meet the new corporate bosses, which everyone knows means he's a dead employee walking. Things are looking darkest just as his loving wife is bringing news of a baby on the way. The show builds up a terrific critique of anxiety in the Rat Race, but then... The High Cost of Loving DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1958 / B&W / 2:35 enhanced widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date July 16, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring José Ferrer, Gena Rowlands, Joanne Gilbert, Jim Backus, Bobby Troup, Philip Ober, Edward Platt, Charles Watts, Werner Klemperer, Malcolm Atterbury, Jeanne Baird, Nick Clooney, Abby Dalton, Richard Deacon, Nancy Kulp, Lucien Littlefield. Cinematography George J. Folsey Film Editor Ferris Webster Original Music Jeff Alexander Written by Rip Van Ronkel,...

Pioneering woman director Lois Weber socially conscious drama 'Shoes' among Library of Congress' Packard Theater movies (photo: Mary MacLaren in 'Shoes') In February 2015, National Film Registry titles will be showcased at the Library of Congress' Packard Campus Theater – aka the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation – in Culpeper, Virginia. These range from pioneering woman director Lois Weber's socially conscious 1916 drama Shoes to Robert Zemeckis' 1985 blockbuster Back to the Future. Another Packard Theater highlight next month is Sam Peckinpah's ultra-violent Western The Wild Bunch (1969), starring William Holden and Ernest Borgnine. Also, Howard Hawks' "anti-High Noon" Western Rio Bravo (1959), toplining John Wayne and Dean Martin. And George Cukor's costly remake of A Star Is Born (1954), featuring Academy Award nominees Judy Garland and James Mason in the old Janet Gaynor and Fredric March roles. There's more: Jeff Bridges delivers a colorful performance in...

Donna Douglas, who played Elly May Clampett on the CBS sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies,” died Friday, NBC affiliate Wafb reports. She was 81.

TMZ reports that Douglas died at her home in Louisiana, surrounded by friends and family.

Born Doris Smith in Louisiana in 1933, Douglas appeared on “The Steve Allen Show” and “The Perry Como Show” before rising to notoriety on “The Beverly Hillbillies,” the comedy about a rural family who moved to Beverly Hills after patriarch Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen) struck oil.

Douglas’ agent has not yet responded to TheWrap‘s request for comment.

See photos: Hollywood’s Notable Deaths of 2014

The series,...

I have a curious habit, maybe you have it too, if you are a real movie geek, film fan, cinema addict, what have you.

A certain number of movies that I have seen and loved with all my heart were losers at the box office or were mercilessly slammed by critics, usually both. This doesn’t happen all the time, mind you. I know a bad movie when I see one. But several times I have seen a movie on opening day and loved it so much I was sure it would be a big hit and be loved by critics and film goers, nope, not all the time.

Here then is my own personal and highly eccentric top ten list, with some honorable mentions, of movies that lost out, yet I love them still, many of them desperately, hysterically, madly do I love these films, well anyway… let me tell you about it.

‘Shane’: Alan Ladd stars in classic Western to be screened at the Academy The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a 60th anniversary screening of George Stevens’ classic Western Shane, starring Alan Ladd as a lone and mysterious gunslinger, at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, October 7, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Besides Ladd, Shane, a 1953 Paramount release, also stars Jean Arthur in her last movie role, in addition to Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde, and Jack Palance. (Photo: Alan Ladd in Shane.) "A gun is a tool, Marian, no better or no worse than any other tool, an axe, a shovel or anything," Alan Ladd’s Shane tells Jean Arthur’s homesteader wife and mother. "A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that." That may sound like your usual National Rifle Association bullshit, but in the...

Jeanne Crain: Lighthearted movies vs. real life tragedies (photo: Madeleine Carroll and Jeanne Crain in ‘The Fan’) (See also: "Jeanne Crain: From ‘Pinky’ Inanity to ‘Margie’ Magic.") Unlike her characters in Margie, Home in Indiana, State Fair, Centennial Summer, The Fan, and Cheaper by the Dozen (and its sequel, Belles on Their Toes), or even in the more complex A Letter to Three Wives and People Will Talk, Jeanne Crain didn’t find a romantic Happy Ending in real life. In the mid-’50s, Crain accused her husband, former minor actor Paul Brooks aka Paul Brinkman, of infidelity, of living off her earnings, and of brutally beating her. The couple reportedly were never divorced because of their Catholic faith. (And at least in the ’60s, unlike the humanistic, progressive-thinking Margie, Crain was a “conservative” Republican who supported Richard Nixon.) In the early ’90s, she lost two of her...

By Lee Pfeiffer

I have always been a great admirer of Paul Henning, the crooner-turned-tv producer/writer of some of the best-loved shows of the 1960s. It was Henning who gave a voice to rural audiences by creating such classic TV series as The Beverly Hillbilllies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. If you revisit any of them today, they remain far superior to most contemporary sitcoms. Henning not only created shows that have timeless appeal, but he also brainstormed the concept of interweaving characters and plot devices between the series- a stroke of genius that brought cross-promotion marketing to new levels. Henning also prided himself on making his country characters eccentric, but never idiotic. They were simple people living simple lives and if they seemed to exist in a time warp, they were all honest, admirable folks. It was always the sophisticated city slickers who would get their comeuppance at...

What will I be doing on Christmas Day while many of you are unwrapping gifts and getting tanked on eggnog? I'll be getting tanked on my present from Gsn — an all-day marathon devoted to my favorite game show of all-time, Match Game.

What makes this marathon extra special is that it includes a few never-before-aired episodes (including the original pilot), as well as other installments featuring such late Hollywood greats as Jayne Mansfield, Michael Landon, Nancy Kulp, Nell Carter, McLean Stevenson and Eva Gabor.

Read More >...

Donna Douglas played Elly Mae Clampett on The Beverly Hillibillies for all nine seasons and 274 episodes of the very popular CBS sitcom. The show ran from 1962 until 1971 and was a top 20 show for eight seasons.

She returned to her beloved role in the disappointing reunion movie The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies in 1981, joining Buddy Ebsen and Nancy Kulp.

Douglas later appeared as Elly Mae in The Legend of the Beverly Hillbillies, a mockumentary-style tribute that included in-character appearances by Buddy Ebsen, Max Baer Jr., Eva Gabor, Eddie Albert, Louis Nye, and Larry Pennell.

That was aired the same year as the disappointing release of the feature film starring Jim Varney, Cloris Leachman, Dabney Coleman, and Lily Tomlin.

Douglas has returned to her signature just one more time, in a very...

With the entire original run of The Twilight Zone available to watch instantly, we’re partnering with Twitch Film to cover all of the show’s 156 episodes. Are you brave enough to watch them all with us? The Twilight Zone (Episode #90): “The Fugitive” (airdate 3/9/62) The Plot: An old man can do the kind of magic that no one else seems to understand, except the children he hangs around with all day. That bliss is about to be crushed by two men in suits looking for whatever that old man really is. The Goods: Rob just wrote a strong review of one of the most iconic episodes – To Serve Man - but I would argue that this story deserves the same recognition in the pantheon of the champions of the series. It’s got everything that represents The Twilight Zone: heart, sci-fi, a lesson, and the wondrous magic of belief. Old...

White Horse Theater Company Tennessee Williams: Suddenly Last Summer Hudson Guild Theater September 16 - October 2, 2011

Suddenly Last Summer is considered to be Tennessee Williams's most poetic play. Williams's carefully crafted words are heard primarily in two long monologues within the play, around which the action takes place. The 1959 film version is a staple of Turner Classic Movies, and I was curious to attend a version based on the original stage script, apparently mounted in honor of the hundredth anniversary of Williams's birth.

The story, for those who have been watching American Idol, The Hills, and Dancing with the Stars, concerns a New Orleans dowager, Mrs. Venable. She is attempting to use her wealth to manipulate both her poor relations and a doctor (who is researching a radical surgical approach to mental illness) into lobotomizing her niece by marriage. The niece, Katherine, has been hospitalized in an hysterical state...

It seems like every time there's a new biography about a past Hollywood star or starlet, we get to know a little more about their sexual history and it involves both sexes. The recent discovery that Vivien Leigh had several female lovers adds her to an ever-growing list of talented actresses that were married to men but involved with women in the early days of Hollywood. While we know about several already (Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Greta Garbo) there are several others who we can claim as well. Here's a small list of actresses with whom we share a kinship.

Spring Byington (1886 - 1971)

Most Famous For: Meet John Doe, Little Women

Romanced: Marjorie "Ma Kettle" Main, Maude Adams

Estelle Winwood (1883 - 1984)

Most Famous For: Quality Street, Camelot

Romanced: Tallulah Bankhead

Ona Munson (1903 - 1955)

Most Famous For: Gone With the Wind, The Hot Heiress

Romanced: Mercedes de Acosta

Joan Crawford (1905 - 1977)

Most Famous For: Mildred Pierce,...

The 8th Annual TV Land Awards, hosted by Tim Allen, were filled with cast reunions, people confessing what they did when they were on The Love Boat (Billy Crystal: "I kissed Nancy Kulp, who was on The Beverly Hillbillies. It’s true"), and wonderfully absurd moments such as Charo gyrating behind a seated Brad Garrett as Blondie, recipient of the Icon award, performed "One Way or Another" live. Members of the cast of Glee were on hand to accept their Future Classic award shortly after the cast of Bosom Buddies celebrated its 30th anniversary. (Cue Jane Lynch who said,...

In 1962, a truly strange TV show hit the airwaves, The Beverly Hillbillies. The sitcom revolves around a poor mountaineer, Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen), who discovers oil on his backwoods property. Now a multi-millionaire, he's encouraged to move to Beverly Hills with his spunky mother-in-law, "Granny" (Irene Ryan), beautiful daughter Elly May (Donna Douglas), and dim-witted nephew Jethro (Max Baer). They try to understand their strange new surroundings and are aided by selfish banker Milburn Drysdale (Raymond Bailey) and his bookish secretary, Miss Jane Hathaway (Nancy Kulp).

It may be hard to imagine it now but in its day, The Beverly Hillbillies was a massive hit. Though hated by most critics, several episodes of the series are among the most-watched TV episodes in history, having drawn as much as 44% of the viewing households. A 1964 episode titled "The Giant Jackrabbit" is still the most-watched half-hour program...